‘You had to overcome their fear’. Exclusive interview with co-founder of Qantas

It was bitterly cold up there, in leather cap and goggles, in the open cockpit. Turbulence in those North Queensland skies was often terrifying. Passengers could do nothing but hang on and bear it, hopefully holding something to catch the vomit.

‘Sometimes the only edifice on the aerodrome was a little tin shed’, Sir Hudson  told me. ‘And on a cold morning you’d see the poor passengers making a sprint for this little tin shed.’

Sir Hudson Fysh was co-founder of the Australian flagship airline, Qantas. I interviewed him in 1970. This was a year before the first 747 Jumbo took to our skies, and three years before Concorde first flew.

We spoke to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his scrappy little airline that started in the red dust of inland Queensland not long after World War One, and quickly grew to take on the world.

Sir Hudson was a natural storyteller. He shared insights into the rugged flying conditions for passengers and pilots alike; the emotions of those early passengers who in many ways were like guinea pigs; and the lows and highs of running an airline between the world wars – including the romance of the flying boats – and on into the jet age.